Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or "Mad Cow Disease"

Since 1996, evidence has been increasing for a causal relationship between
the outbreak in Europe of a disease in cattle, called bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow disease"), and a disease in
humans, called "variant" Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

Both disorders
are invariably fatal brain diseases with unusually long incubation periods
measured in years, and are caused by abnormally folded proteins in the brain called "prions" (pree-ons).

About Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)
General information about mad cow disease, background, evolution,
and current concerns and information from the CDC, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Foreign Agriculture
Service.